‘Absolutely Unacceptable’ Fans Slam Nancy Tyagi For Lying About Designing Her Cannes Dress

Influencer Nancy Tyagi’s Cannes 2024 dress catapulted her to instant fame. Her self-made dress earned her a lot of praise from Indians, who were happy to see their country’s talents being represented in such a positive light. However, her Cannes 2025 outfit seems to have landed her in a massive controversy.

After a stunning debut last year, Nancy Tyagi returned to the film festival’s red carpet this year too, turning heads in a beige outfit. Posting a picture of a shimmery party dress paired with a voluminous cape, she wrote about creating the outfit in her mom’s favourite colour. She added that stitching the Cannes 2025 outfit took her a month.

However, singer Neha Bhasin took to her Instagram stories to share that this wasn’t an original design by the influencer. She shared a picture of herself in a similar outfit from a performance, captioning it, “This corset looks too familiar, hmmmm. Just wondering”.

She went on to share that the original outfit was from The Source Bombay, a Bandra fashion store that sells and rents customised outfits.

Surbhi Gupta, the owner of The Source Bombay, told Free Press Journal, "Nancy claims she stitched it herself and all of that, but she bought it from us. She got it from our Mumbai store. We don’t have any problem. She purchased it, so she's free to do what she wants with it. But it is our design. We didn't do a barter or a collaboration. She did not stitch it herself, which she claims she did. The cape she wore doesn't belong to me... that's something she seems to have made herself, I guess."

Surbhi added that Nancy bought the outfit for Rs. 25,000 before Cannes 2025.

Later, Neha Bhasin took to her Instagram stories and shared that she didn’t intend to demean anyone but wanted the right people to get credit for their work and originality.

Neha wrote, “The intention was not to demean another woman but to state a simple fact. We have all worked hard to be where we are. We are all self made. But to call someone else's work your own will never be ok. The source from Bombay has also worked its way up a small garage they worked out of 15 years ago. I have seen Surbhi it's owner work tirelessly to sustain her business to now thrive. Everyone has a story of where they come from and just because no ones applauding them does not mean you rob them of their credit. I urge you to not buy a story but applaud people's talents and be ok to say what's not ok.”

Here’s how fans have reacted to this news:

Nancy Tyagi has not yet responded to these allegations.